A Tribute to the Dick Smith System 80
(aka Video Genie and PMC-80/81)

Hardware

Origins - The history behind the System 80

The Original Template. The Tandy TRS-80 Model 1

The
story of the System 80/Video Genie/PMC 80 starts with another machine,
the Tandy TRS-80 Model 1, seen here in the picture (borrowed from www.trs-80.com)
opposite. This venerable computer, invented by Don French &
Steve Leininger for Tandy, was initially released in 1977 with a tiny
subset of Tandy-written BASIC and just 4k of RAM. This RAM was soon
quadrupled to 16k, Level 1 was tossed out in favour of a usable version
of Microsoft BASIC (called Level 2), and the unit was given the accessories
to warp to disk capability. To top it off, Tandy's Radio Shack stores
gave the computer an automatic distribution chain in the U.S.

It was a great success!

The Importance of Software Support

Very soon, a whole culture grew around
the TRS-80 Model 1 supported by numerous magazines and an abundance of
software. A similar culture developed around the Apple 2, and to
a lesser degree the Commodore Pet.

The enthusiasm and sales these machines
generated did not go un-noticed by other electronic manufactures and entrepreneurs
who quickly saw the potential of the microcomputer market. However,
new computer manufactures faced a dilemma. Improved specifications
took engineering innovation. Also, machines may have had innovative
features, but without software they were little better than toys to tinker
with. Sophisticated software was difficult and expensive to write,
and manufactures seldom had the time, skill or capitol to invest in it!

Yet, they needed software to sell their
computers. Machines would only "take off" in the market
place if software was available and this took a
lot of investment. Either the manufacture would have to write the
software, or enough interest had to be generated (by good hardware, support,
hype, gimmicks and marketing) to get others excited enough to write it.
Also programmers who want to sell programs wouldn't write code unless
the machine seemed to have a future. The good hardware, support,
hype, gimmicks and marketing also had to convince them!

EACA and Dick Smith Electronics

The
year was 1978. EACA was a Hong Kong-based
company specializing in simple electronic toys. At that time the
company had a relationship with entrepreneur Dick Smith (photo opposite),
an Australian businessman who had developed a number of chain stores that
went by the name Dick Smith Electronics (DSE). These stores specialised
in hobby electronics and gadgetry somewhat similar to Tandy's Radio Shack
line of stores in the US, through which the TRS-80 Model 1 was sold. EACA
was supplying "pong-type" TV game units to DSE for distribution
in Australia.

Clone Conversations

EACA had competent engineers and saw an
advantage in manufacturing a microcomputer, which (for the reasons above)
was compatible with existing software. During a conversation with
Dick Smith, Eric Chung, owner of EACA floated the idea of cloning an Apple
2, hence cashing in on the growing Apple software base. DSE could
perhaps market this machine in Australia? Dick Smith felt the Apple
2 clone would be too expensive, and a better option might be to look at
a TRS-80 Model 1 compatible machine. That way they would have a
cheaper, more affordable computer and so sell more units.

The conversation was forgotten and Dick
Smith heard nothing more about a "clone" computer, Tandy, Apple,
or otherwise until months later, when, out of the blue and quite unexpectedly,
EACA announced they had produced such a thing. The System 80/Video
Genie/PMC-80 had been born!

A Late Arrival

The System 80 was announced as a product
by DSE on September 1st, 1979. However, machines did not appear
in Dick Smith Stores in Australia until May, 1980? There were a
number of rumours flying around at the time as to why, some of which are
mentioned in this review.
One rumour was that negotiations between EACA and Microsoft for Microsoft's
Level 2 BASIC (the same version they had licensed to Tandy for the TRS-80
Model 1) went on for longer than anticipated and were not settled until
early 1980. According to an article in Micro-80 (Issue 6, May 1980),
these negotiations had dragged on for 18 months!

However, the real reason (according to
a reliable source) appears to be quality issues at EACA. The first units
assembled were practically unusable and Dick Smith Ltd. spent some time
with EACA trying to sort the problems out. Finally a useable machine emerged,
although the first variant still had significant shortcomings, as detailed in
the hardware section.

Legal Status

Despite
EACA's assurances that all the legal paperwork had been done, Dick Smith
and others in his organization were always a little doubtful of this claim,
and 1/2 expected lawyers from either Microsoft or Tandy to come knocking
any day.

Was it all legitimate and above board?
Well, mostly.

EACA developed this clone with no reference
to Tandy. That much is known. They had simply copied the TRS-80
Model 1 ROM, changing only a tiny segment
of it to accommodate hardware differences. However, most
of the code in the ROM was actually owned by Microsoft, not Tandy and
in fact the Microsoft Interpreter in ROM was legal. The following
facts back this up:

1. Tandy employed Microsoft to write
Level 2 BASIC but it was only licensed (non-exclusively) to Tandy, not
sold to them. Bill Gates used a similar strategy with PC-DOS and
IBM which is why he could sell the DOS (otherwise called MS-DOS) to
IBM clones.

2. Bill Gates is on record saying he licensed his BASIC to EACA.
This appears in a March 1980 interview transcript involving Bill Gates
talking about copyright issues. This transcript can be found in several
places on the web. http://slashdot.org/features/00/01/20/1316236.shtml
is one such place. During this interview, Gates (G) says the following:

B-K: What about modifications?
Minor modifications to programs and reorganization, and then re-issuance?
How do you feel about that? There are rumors, which you probably have
more reliable information on, about the copies of machines like the
TRS-80 to appear using essentially your writing of Level II. How do
you feel about a minor rewrite of all of your work? And how do you
think you would approach that if such a machine were in fact to appear?

G: Well, you must be talking about the EACA machine, which is a Hong
Kong company that's coming in and licensed our BASIC.

B-K: They have licensed it from you?

G: Certainly.

B-K: Okay, I was not aware...

3. On every System 80 Machine (at least
the four or five I have seen) there is a
sticker on the bottom saying "BASIC Interpreter, Copyright
(C) by Microsoft 1980, All Rights Reserved".

What was not legal though, was
the other 4k (well, 2.5k as 1.5k was empty) of ROM which contained Tandy's
I/O routines and other code. It was this that produced a ruling in favour of Tandy, when the latter took Personal Micro Computers Inc (Distributors of the U.S.-badged EACA machine, the PMC-80) to court in 1981.

Why Tandy never slapped a court order
on EACA, or any of the other global distributors such as Dick Smith Electronics
is not known. It could be that their management was in some disarray
(old Charles Tandy had just died) or they may not have felt confident
about an International legal challenge? They might have just decided
that there was little to be gained by mounting an international challenge
considering the U.S. was their main market focus and the TRS-80 Model
1 was being phased out anyway. Possibly all of those reasons.

Homegrown clones such as the LNW 80 introduced
in late 1980 appear to have written their own I/O code so copyright violation
was not an issue.

The System 80 was a TRS-80 Model 1 clone,
but it also had some evolutionary features which showed improvements over
the Tandy computer. However, the first units off the production
line also had some notable omissions which more than negated these
improvements! Thankfully these were soon rectified. More
on this, the computer, and all its variants here.

Footnote:

Although Dick Smith in conversation with
EACA's Eric Chung rejected the notion of an Apple 2 clone in favour of
the TRS-80 Model 1, in 1984 his (now ex-) company Dick Smith Electronics
(which had been sold to Woolworths in 1982) branded and distributed such
a computer from another Hong Kong firm (Video Technology). The
Dick Smith Cat.

As to Dick Smith himself, after selling
DSE he went on to a life of adventure, further business ventures and public
service. He became an Australian icon and was voted Australian of the
Year in 1986, He is now involved in the food business ( See http://www.dicksmithfoods.com.au/
). The site has a biography on Dick Smith in the "About Us"
section.